[Linux-aus] Political Recognition for Technology in Australia - was Re: Seeking feedback - EFA Citizens Not Suspects campaign

[Russell Coker]

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, Bret Busby <bret at busby.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Jun 2013, Russell Coker wrote:
> >> Yes, the Government lavishes itself with multi-billion $ NBN that works
> >> out per household to hundreds-of-thousands of dollars per install (if
> >> not more).
> > 
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Broadband_Network
> > 
> > Yes the NBN is expensive, but let's not exaggerate.  The cost of the NBN
> > is listed as $37,400,000,000.  If it was to cost $100K per installation
> > then that would mean that there could only be 374,000 installations. 
> > According to Wikipedia 24,000 customer services were active late last
> > year - that made it more than $100K per installation then but they
> > continue to install at more homes.
> 
> I think that the reference to cost per household, is a bit hairy, as the
> NBN is supposedly intended to serve businesses also, and, not just
> households. Or, so I believe.

The Melbourne CBD and surrounding inner urban and business areas seem to be 
scheduled later than all other parts of Victoria for the NBN.  So it seems to 
be more about home users than businesses.

> Does anyone know how many households exist in Australia, anyway?

http://tinyurl.com/pu8qrsx

According to the ABS there were "7.6 million (occupied private dwellings) in 
2006" with an average of 2.6 people per household.

> In the meantime, using a (rough, and, not very accurate) figure of a
> population of about 20 million, then, the listed cost cited above, of
> $37400000000, gives about (3.7x10E10 / 2x10E7) $1800 per person.

37400000000/7600000 == 4921 which is pretty close to the 5000 number that has 
always been used for the cost per household.

This isn't economically viable and there's no realistic possibility of the NBN 
being privatised in any sort of profitable manner which doesn't involve writing 
down the value to something significantly less than $37.4 billion.

> I understood that data transmission via electricity supply lines, is
> faster and less expensive, as the network of lines already exists. I
> believe that data transmission via electricity supply lines, has been
> used successfully in Europe, for some years, now (of course, we are way
> behind the rest of the world - that is the policy of the federal
> parliament).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication

Wikipedia suggests that data rates only go up to hundreds of kilobits per 
second, that signals don't go through transformers, and that even power 
companies are using optic fiber for their own data transfer needs.

-- 
My Main Blog         http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog    http://doc.coker.com.au/